A Narrow Walk
by RoseWhite1860
Summary: Series of One shots of an orphaned girl John and Harold saved from nearly dying.
1. Chapter 1 Safehaven

**As a note I do not own POI, I only own my OC Alexis**

As still as a stone, she laid in the alleyway. She felt a warm liquid run down fingers as she pressed her hand against the bullet wound on her shoulder. Instead of screaming out of pain, tears fell from her eyes. No one cared about what happened to her. Her parents were buried in a cemetery somewhere, thanks to her relatives, but they didn't want her. They threw her into the foster-care system with no more thought than the clothes carelessly thrown in an empty room when guest come over to eat a meal. She had no hope of being found. She would just end up a Jane Doe in a morgue somewhere, with the world none the wiser to her existence.

Little known to her, someone was looking for her. A lone camera at the end of the alley had seen her plight and the man behind the computer was hoping his partner got to her in time to save her life.

* * *

><p>John knew the newest number was running out of time, but he was at least ten minutes away from the spot that Finch said she was. Cater and Fusco were on the other side of the city dealing with a homicide, so there was no hope of having that intervention. Finch was in the library trying to figure out who would want the poor girl dead, which John would gladly deal with after he found her. She had already suffered enough in the care of the Federal Government she didn't need to go through anymore pain. As John got closer he began to sprint until he stood in the alley. She was nowhere in sight, with the night falling and so few lights, he was worried that he would miss her in the dark shadows. Then he heard it. A soft whimpering came from somewhere to his left. He started to walk in the direction of the pained sound, till he saw the dark shape of a shoe sticking out from behind a dumpster. Slowly he approached her, making as little noise as possible so that he would not startle the injured teen and scare her worse than she probably already was.<p>

When he could finally get a good look at her, his throat seemed to close up. She was curled in a fetal position with her back against the wall, passed out. Her right hand was coated with blood and blood had soaked the front of her unzipped, ratty, fleece jacket. The jeans she was wearing were worn, faded and covered with muck and grim from the street. Her tennis shoes were in the same sorry state and her light brown hair looked greasy in the dim lighting of the alley.

John tapped his ear piece. "Finch, I found her. She's lost a lot of blood."

"There is a clinic about two blocks from your current position," Finch replied as a clattering of computer keys filled the background. "Can you get her there in time?"

"She'll be there in time," John said as he tapped the ear piece. He then turned and picked the teen up off the dirty street. With care, he quickly headed towards the clinic.

* * *

><p>Finch entered the clinic to see John pacing the far end of the waiting room. Harold was concerned, John never did that, but then he really disliked it when people harmed children and that teen was no exception to that rule.<p>

"The doctor says that she'll make it, Finch," John said in his gravelly voice. "We'll need to take her to a safe house as soon as she is out."

"I'm assuming you'll be flushing these imbeciles out after she is safe," Mr. Reese.

"You assume correctly, "John said as he turned an icy glare towards the operating room.

"I have found nothing so far, other than her relatives had no concerns for her welfare when they put her in Foster Care."

"She can't go back."

"I completely agree with you in that regard, but then that pose the problem of where she will go once she is safe."

"We'll just cross that bridge when we get that far," Reese said with a slight smirk as the doctor entered the room.

The white haired doctor looked between the two men and then leaned tiredly against the white wall of the waiting room.

"The teen will be just fine," the doctor said as Reese leveled an icy glare at the doctor. "The bullet missed all of her major veins, arteries and nerves as it tore through the muscle before it lodged itself in the bone, but she lost a lot of blood, and will be a bit shaky for the next couple of days. So rest is an order, but other than that she'll be just fine."

"Good," Reese said as he stalked out of the room, presumably to go after the shooter.

"How long before she's able to leave?" Finch asked.

"She'll awake up in a couple of minutes then you can take her," the doctor said as Finch handed him a duffle bag containing money. "I take it that the two of you will be taking responsibility for her?"

"The agreement that we had from the start was that you didn't ask any questions about us or anyone we bring here," Finch said before he hobbled over to the nearest chair. His leg and back hurt from old wounds, but he still couldn't help feeling sorry for the teen. She had been home when her parents died in a car crash a few miles from home. Her relatives had big bank accounts, but they threw her away like trash instead of taking care of her. In Foster Care she hadn't faired very well either. Finch had seen the reports of abuse that Cater had gotten from the system. No one had even reported her missing from her latest home. How they missed her baffled Finch.

Her school reports didn't even hint at the troubles that she was having. Her grades were holding steady in the "B" range. The teachers had no disciplinary problems with her. In fact, they all generally liked the girl. She was showing signs of depression though, according to the school counselor, and there were reports of her being bullied. Nothing seemed to have been done about either situation, other than just reporting it up, Finch thought as he looked over her records once more on his phone. She needed someone to support her, but instead she had to basically look after herself.

"Mr. Wren, the child is awake," the doc said as he stuck his head into the waiting room.

"Thank you," Finch said as he followed the doctor to her room.

* * *

><p>She stared at the white walls with emerald green eyes, trying to remember how she ended up in that room, but all she could remember was the alley and the searing pain in her shoulder. Someone had found her and at that moment she really wanted to know who. Who was the person that got her shoulder bandaged and arm in a sling The doctor, who had treated her, didn't even say a word, even after she had asked several times. He just mumbled about a silent agreement or something like that.<p>

A knock on the wall by the door, brought her out of her musings and back into reality to see a short man dressed in a shirt and tie wearing glasses standing in the door way.

"Who are you?" she asked as she studied him.

"A friend," he said seriously as he entered the room with a pronounced limb and then proceeded to sit down in the chair next to her bed.

She stared at him in confusion.

"Your life is in danger," the man said quietly.

"Think I've figured that out!" she said as she glared at him.

"Oh, I know that you know otherwise my partner wouldn't have had to bring you here, Alexis."

Her eyes went wide. "How do you know who I am, let alone where to find me?"

"We know a lot about you Miss Bishop. We know about your parent's deaths and what your relatives did. We know that you are a good student, but I know that you're suffering. No one takes being abandoned as well as you apparently have.

Without thinking, she chose to let the tears that she had held in for years fall.

"My partner and I plan to look after you until the threat on your life is gone," Finch said a little shaken by the tears.

"And then what?" she choked. "Throw me back into the system?"

"Preferably that is not my solution to this conundrum, but we'll deal with it when we come to that particular bridge," Finch said as he stared into her bright green eyes.

"What's your name?" she asked as she dried her tears on the sleeve of her hospital gown.

"Harold Finch, you can just call me Harold."

"Your partner?"

"John Reese."


	2. Chapter 2 getting a home

**AN: There is a huge time jump from the last Ch to this one, I may go back and fill in the blanks at some later point. I do not own POI, just own my OC Alexis.**

*a couple of weeks later

John looked at the glass with Alexis's picture on it once more as Finch sat at his computer.

"So now what?" Finch asked him. "The threat to her life is gone and I'm quite sure that neither of us is going to even suggest sending her back to that wrenched place."

"I'll ask Detective Fusco if he can find someone willing to take her, Finch said a second later as he started typing on his computer.

* * *

><p>John stared at the picture of her as a little girl standing next to her parents and felt the pain of sadness. He didn't really want to let her go after the last couple of weeks spent cooped up with her in the safe house. She wanted to have a family that much he had gathered after hearing all of the stories of her past and he truly wanted to give her that. He wanted to help her with her past so that it wouldn't haut her like his still did. Alexis was due at least that much because of what had happened to her. John felt like he was letting her down by letting her go. How could two supposedly dead and wanted men take in a suffering teen, who needed a lot of help.<p>

As Finch sat behind his computer, he couldn't help, but wonder the same thing. In his eyes a hurt teen would only suffer more if she stayed with them. She needed a consistency to her life that they couldn't give her. Halfway through dialing Fusco's number, he stopped and hung up. He was not going to be the one who let that girl go this time. It was now just a question who will be her primary care taker.

"Mr. Reese, I have a different solution to this predicament that we've found ourselves in," Finch said as he looked at Alexis's picture.

"And that would be...?" John asked as he coldly stared at Finch.

"We both have become very fond of Miss Bishop and we don't want to be rid of that attachment, so I suggest that we take her under our wings, permanently."

John's eyes narrowed even further.

"She won't be in anymore danger here than she would be anywhere else. We both understand how she's feeling, so we can connect to her in a way that no one else can."

Reese sighed. "Why not? I like that stubborn kid anyway."

* * *

><p>Alexis stared at the wall in front of her trying to figure out a plan. She knew that she was not going to let anyone put her back in the system; she would live on the streets first. Finch and Reese had become the people that she leaned on the most and she knew that she was going to miss them when she left. That still didn't make her choice any different, though.<p>

There was a soft knock on the door and then both men entered quietly.

"So you're sending me back," Alex said as she let out a sigh. She knew that all of this had been like a short dream between the nightmares of her life.

"No, we are not doing that Miss Bishop," Finch said as he sat down in the chair opposite of her bed.

She raised an eyebrow. "Then where am I going?'

"You're staying here," Reese said with a smile.

"Indeed, we looked over all of the other options, but we realized that we did not truly want to let you go," Finch said as Alex looked between the two men.

"Wait a minute, so you guys are going to file for my adoption!"

"Yes," both men said at once.

"But we need to know who you would like to be your guardian," Finch said as he revealed a sheet of paper.

"Well, both of you are supposed to be dead, so I'm assuming that you are going to use one of the alias that you have. Over all though I would like Reese to be the one named on my adoption papers," she said with a smile.

"Then it's settled," Reese said just before they both left the room.


	3. Chapter 3 new years eve

**Sorry that it's been a while. I had college finals and a bunch of other things to deal with. I also may be worse about updating in the future, as I have job now as well as classes. I do not own person of interest, just my OC.**

Alex looked around at the crowd that filled the square that were all watching the ball drop. As the seconds ticced below ten, the crowd started to shout the numbers on the screen. Shouts of "Happy New Years" filled the air second that the ball was all the way at the bottom.

Everywhere she turned people were hugging and kissing each other, as well as announcing their resolutions for the new year. Resolutions that never lasted very long. For Alexis a new year was a fresh start in her life. After all the years of living on the streets her wish for someone to care for her had come true. On the cold nights and in the dark of the alleyways, she'd made that wish while everyone else was getting drunk and celebrating with family and friends.

This year she could make a different whish. Her wish was to learn to trust the people that had rescued her from being killed by the mob form accidental overhearing one of their top secret meetings. Alex was not going to let that chance for a new life slip through her fingers. Finch was already homeschooling her to catch her up to where other kids her age should be. Most of that was in preparation for the possibility of her going to public school the next fall, if she felt up to it. She wanted to make new friends, but first she had to relearn how to trust.

oOo

Harold glanced over at Alex clearly worried that the noise of the crowd was bothering her, but he relaxed when he saw her smile as she took the whole scene in as snow started to drift down from the sky. He knew that Alex still had a lot of wounds hidden deep inside her heart. There were days that John walked into the office looking completely drained because of a nightmare that had kept Alex up allnight.

As he watched everyone else celebrate he decided that this year he was going to be more of an open person to Alex, so that she would see that she wasn't the only one who had problems that kept her up at night.

oOo

John kept silent after he'd dropped Finch off at the Library and was headed back to the pad that Finch had given him for his birthday, several months before Alex had been brought into their lives. As he glanced in the rereview mirror to see Alex asleep, he couldn't help but wonder what the rest of his assets, besides Fusco, would think when they met her. Carter, he figured, would give him a half an hour lecture about how he should have even adopted her.

He sighed. When he came to that particular bridge he would deal with it, but he still couldn't help thinking of what the new year would bring all of them, especially when it came to the numbers.


	4. Chapter 4 Nightmare

**I don't own Person of Interest, just my OC Alexis.**

Ch 4 Nightmares

Alexis tossed and turned in her bed , knotting up the blankets around her body in the process. In her sleep filled state, she found herself back on the disgusting ground of the alley with her blood pouring out of her as she screamed at the top of her lungs for someone to help her. Shadowy figures walked past her, but didn't even stop to help her, let along glance at her anguish filled face. Serval figures in the landscape of her dreams, she recognized from the real world. Harold, John, and even Fusco was apart of the nightmare. They like all of the figures obscured in shadow left her lying in a pool of blood. The very same people who she'd been slowly learning to trust over the past few months that they would not abandon her and they actually ment what they said.

As she laid there on the ground that was covered with grease, dirt and debris form the garbage bins that towered over her crumpled body, she could feel her life sliping away with each drop of blood that poured out of her wound. Her voice grew hoarse to the point that she could no longer scream, let alone talk. The shadowy figures seemed to sense that these were her last moments as they circled around her. They witnessed the whole scene, but never interfered with what was happening even though she was looking at them in desperation. Her eyes pleading for just one of them to come forward and try to help her. Then out of the shadows she heard someone whisper her name.

"Alexis, Alexis," the voice repeated over and over as she began to feel someone shaking her shoulder trying to get her attention.

Her eyes flew open as she dragged in ragged breaths turning her head from side to side until her gaze rested on John sitting on the edge of her bed with one hand on her shoulder.

"You're safe," he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

"Ho, how, how'd you..." she started, but couldn't continue because she was so shaken by seeing all of her worst fears in her dreams.

"Your screaming," he said as he looked deep into her eyes. "If you want to talk, I'm willing to listen."

"Why?" she whispered as she tried to comprehend the fact that he cared about a broken and mentally scared kid like her.

"Everyone has a past that haunts them."

She nodded in agreement with his words. "Did you ever have to deal with the fact that you couldn't trust those that you rationally knew you could trust?"

"All the time," he whispered as her eyes began to drift back closed.

oOo

John sighed as he tucked the teen back into bed. He knew that he had to have patience if he was going to help heal her. She would tell him him everything that was bothering her in time, but it was hard to wait for that day. The detailed memories would more likely than not, make him want to kill those who responsibly for causing her nightmares that kept her up for nights on end and made her nearly fall asleep during the day.

"Sleep well," he whispered to her already sleeping form as he left the room and wandered down to his office in the loft to spend the rest of the night thinking as he cleaned his weapons.


	5. Chapter 5 Numbers and School Work

**I do not own POI.**

Numbers and School Work

Alex stared at the picture on the glass wall that was their latest number and then looked at her computer screen. The statics that she had pulled up for her research paper seemed to fit the life of the women John and Harold were trying to help. The statics were troubling in and of themselves, but the facts that they presented lined up perfectly with the life of the young woman whose number had come up.

The fact that they could very well be dealing with a human trafficking situation made chills run down Alex's spine. All she had been doing was looking up some ideas for a paper that Harold wanted her to write as a part of her studies and she had found information that completely tied into the case. The only odd part of it was that neither John or Harold wanted her to help them out with the cases even though she'd expressed her desire to help others like she had been helped.

She'd been instructed to write an argumentative essay on a topic of her choice and she thought to look up issues in other countries as she wasn't quite ready to write a paper, let alone look up statics about street kids like she had been. The problem was that human trafficking happened to anyone and occurred in any country in the world.. She glanced at the picture of the seventeen year old on the wall as she wrote down the details for her paper and hoped the young woman was not dealing with that.

oOo

John sighed as he saw someone following his latest number. Her case happened to be one of the sadder ones. She seemed to have been forced into prostitution by her mother to pay the bills and the one that held the power of her kept on threatening her life. It was going to be one of those long cases and he couldn't help but think of the fact that Alex could have easily found her self in that very same position.

He cared for the girl as if she was his own daughter and hated the idea of her going though something like that. As he watched the stalker move to knock the woman out, he quickly moved forward to stop him.

oOo

Harold had just gotten through talking to the parents of the seventeen year old and he couldn't help but feel disgusted. As he made his way up the stairs of the library, he heard Alex mutter to herself in frustration.

"Are you doing alright?" he asked as he looked into the room where she was staring at her computer screen chewing on the eraser of her pencil.

"If I could get this essay started I would be in very good shape," she muttered as she looked up at him with weary eyes.

"I never told you what form the essay had to take," he said as he sat down at his desk and booted up his computer.

oOo

Alex frowned as she considered Harold's words. A different form that was not the normal essay. She glanced at the pictures on the glass wall and it hit her. With no hesitation she ran into a different room of the library looking for something for an object that she had seen during the days of boredom when her number had been up. In a drawer Alex found what she was looking for.

"I'll be back in a bit," she called to Harold as she ran past the room he was in and down the stairs. She knew how she was going to do her essay.

Digital camera in hand she walked down the streets taking pictures of normal people in a park, homeless people and anything else that could be possibly need for her photo essay.

It was evening by the time she had everything that she needed that she thought that she needed and she was more than a little excited to get started on her essay.

oOo

John frowned when he got back and Alex was no where to be found.

"Harold, where is she?" he asked as he glared at his colleague.

"She's working the essay that I assigned her," Finch said with out looking up from his computer.

"Take it easy Dad," Alex said as she joined them with a camera in hand.

Both of the men looked at each other is shock. She had never said that before and they couldn't help but feel that they were making progress when it came to showing Alex that there are people who care about her no matter what.

She smirked. "I know exactly what I said Uncle Harold. Thanks for the idea for the essay by the way."

Alex then ran into a different room leaving Reese and Finch smirking.


End file.
